The Churches and Monasteries of Egypt and Some Neighbouring Countries, by Abu-Salih the Armenian
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UHRJWY Y-A- SlUtrnta (Bxffjiwnsta THE Churches and Monasteries of Egypt AND Some Neighbouring Countries ATTRIBUTED TO ABU SALIH, THE ARMENIAN EDITED ANDt TRANSLATED BY B. T. A. EVETTS, M.A. TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD WITH ADDED NOTES BY ALFRED J. BUTLER, M.A, ES.A FELLOW OF BRASEN'OSE COLLEGE, OXFORD xfotlr AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1895 Bonbon HENRY FROWDE Oxford University Tress Warehouse Amen Corner, E.C. MACMIU.AN & CO., 66 FIFTH AVENUE CONTENTS ~**~ PAGE Preface . v-viii Introduction ix-xxv English Translation 1-304 Appendix 305-346 Indexes : I. Index of Churches and Monasteries in Egypt . 347-352 II. Supplementary Geographical Index 353-358 III. Index of Personal Names 359-373 IV. Index of General Names 374-382 Arabic Text i-ifr a 2 [IJ. 7] PREFACE. The History attributed to Abu Salih the Armenian is here edited for the first time, by the kind permission of the Minister of Public Instruction and of the Administrator of the National Library in Paris, from the unique MS. purchased by Vansleb in Egypt in the seven- teenth century, and now preserved in that Institution. The present edition is based upon a copy made by the editor from the original, which he afterwards had the advantage of comparing with another copy most liberally placed at his disposal by M. l'Abbe Hyvernat, together with the results of a collation by Professor Ignazio Guidi. To these eminent scholars, therefore, the editor begs to express his deepest gratitude. Professor Margoliouth has also had the goodness to look through both the copy of the text and the translation, and to elucidate many points of difficulty. Mr. Alfred Butler, whose book on the Coptic Churches forms the only work of importance existing on that subject, has generously 'consented to aid in the interpretation of an obscure author by his knowledge of Coptic history and and his contributions to the work are no means archaeology ; by limited to the notes which bear his initials. The system adopted in the transcription of Arabic names is similar to that used in Mr. Butler's Coptic Chinches. It docs not pretend to be perfect. vi PREFA CE. and among other defects does not express the J of the article before ' the solar letters,' or the shortening of the long final vowel in y\ and other words before the article, or the Hamzah except in the middle of a nor are the nuances in the of the vowels word ; pronunciation indicated but no other is to this. The ; perhaps system preferable vocalization of the Arabic forms of names of places is, where possible, that of Yakut, as being in use at the time of our author. In the transcription of the text the original has been closely followed, the diacritical points alone being added where they were wanting. Some of the deviations, however, from classical ortho- graphy and grammar are indicated by foot-notes on the first few pages of the text. The existence of the work has long been known to scholars through the references made to 'Abu Selah,' and the passages quoted from him by Eusebe Renaudot and Etienne Quatremere. Recently M. in also, Amelineau, his Geographic de lEgypte a tepoque copte, has made some little use of the history of Abu Salih, although he has by no means extracted all the information which the book affords on the subject of Egyptian geography. M. Amelineau seems to be fully aware of the value of the work of Abu Salih, at least in certain portions. On the other hand, he seems to have an exaggerated idea of the difficulties presented by the MS. 'It is very badly written in point of language,' he says, ' and most of the diacritical are I points wanting ; yet have translated ' the whole of in it, spite of the difficulties which it presents. I believe ' that the MS. is incomplete in several parts, and has been badly ' bound The together. possessor of the MS. has erased the Coptic 'numerical at the figures top of each leaf, in order, no doubt, that 'the absence of part of the MS. might escape notice. Nevertheless, 'the arc figures still visible, and enable me to conclude that a con- PREFA CE. vii 'siderable part of the MS. is wanting, and that the leaves are not 'arranged in their proper order. Moreover, it is often impossible to ' translate, because the sense cannot be completed.' The French scholar here seems to overstate the case. From an examination of the MS. made by the authorities of the National Library, the editor is able to say that, while it is true that no less than twenty-two leaves are wanting at the beginning of the book, the rest of the leaves are bound in their proper order, according to the which are still Coptic ciphers, visible, as M. Amelineau states ; with the single exception of the leaf which formed the thirtieth folio of the MS. in its original state, but which is now wanting. The reader, therefore, will understand that there is a lacuna between fol. 8, accord- ing to Lie new or Arabic pagination, and fol. 9, which bears in the MS. the the Coptic number 31 ; and that words at the beginning of fol. 9, 'This revenue,' &c, do not refer to the preceding estimate of the revenues of Egypt. The owner of the MS. seems to have supplied the first folio himself, and to have given a new pagination in Arabic figures to the remaining portion of the original book, so that folio 23 became folio 2, and so on. It should be added that the Coptic figures are wanting on fol. 38, which formed fol. 60 of the complete MS., and also on the last two folios. fol. is as The word Isij on 12a translated 'Extreme Unction,' a meaning which the word bears at least in Africa. In late Arabic, ' is also a nomen verbi of and ' to or however, Lsij -Jj , signifies marry ' marriage,' so that our author may perhaps here refer to a practice of marrying within the prohibited degrees then existing among the Copts. The statements of the Coptic Synaxarium, occasionally quoted in the notes to the present edition of Abu Salih, are not guaranteed as being always historically accurate. For instance, the Emperor Diocletian is usually represented, without reference to his colleagues in viii PREFACE. the empire, as himself carrying on the persecution which goes by his name, although in reality he abdicated two years after the promulgation of the edict which sanctioned and originated it : and, to take another ' example, St. Theodore is called magister militum,' although this office was not instituted until the reign of Constantine. Nevertheless valuable traditions of early Church history, and in particular of the great persecution itself, are embodied both in the Synaxarium and in the Coptic Acts of tlie Martyrs, on which it is partly founded. INTRODUCTION The sole indication which we possess of the name of our author is to be found in the title inscribed on the first page of the MS. This title, however, was supplied, as it has already been said, by a later hand and it is there ; is, moreover, obviously incomplete. No name ' ' given to the work, beyond the meagre designation of chronicle or ' ' and this is so to the rule of Arabic literature that it history ; contrary is enough by itself to prove that the original title had been lost. The author is designated by his praenomen only, as 'Abu Salih the Armenian.' It is a recognized fact in Arabic orthography that the proper name Salih (Jl^) is one of those which may by common custom be written defectively without the 1 see i. Hence there is no ; Vernier, Grammaire arabe, p. 91. reason to adopt the form 'Abu Selah,' used by Renaudot, Ouatremere, Amelineau, and others. It must, in the absence of further proof, re- ' main doubtful whether 'Abu Salih can be taken as the true praenomen [kunyak) of the author of the present work. His nationality, on the other hand, may be inferred, not only from the title, but also from the internal evidence of the book, for the lengthy description of the Armenian churches, and of the affairs of the Armenian patriarch, would tend to show that the writer had a the special connexion with Armenian nation ; and, although he often speaks as though his sympathies and interests were bound up with those of the Copts, we must remember that this very Armenian patriarch, of whom we 'have spoken, was consecrated in the presence of Gabriel, the seventieth patriarch of the Copts (Renaudot, Hist. Patr. an<3 there are other of intercourse pp. 57~59) '> many proofs friendly between the two races. Moreover, on fol. 3 a, the Armenian form of the name Sergius (\)uipfyf,u, Sarfcis) is, as Mr. F. C. Conybeare recognizes, correctly transcribed in Arabic as u-^, Sharkis, and explained as being equivalent to i*^, Sirjah. It may be maintained, therefore, as a proba- b [II. 7-] It X CHURCHES AND MONASTERIES OF EGYPT. the was Armenian It is bility, that the author of work by nationality. that ' Abou Selah visited surprising, however, that M. Amelineau says (sic) in that Egypt at the moment when the Armenians were all-powerful that Abu Salih, if that was country.' It is surely much more probable his name, was not a mere visitor to Egypt, but rather a member of the there at the end of Armenian colony, the ancestors of which had settled the the eleventh century of our era, under the protection of Badr al-Jamali, Al-Mustansir and that our author had been Armenian vizier to the caliph ; the born and bred in the country.